Cassiopeia
by xxxDREAMHEARTxxx
Summary: When Cassiopeia Malfoy starts at Hogwarts, she knows things are bad when she gets sorted into Slytherin and her friends start to hate her. But what can a boy do to change it all? Rating for a tiny bit of language.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: So this is my new fanfic that I'm writing. I haven't written anything in ages so this might be a bit scratchy. But my friends have given me good feedback so yeah...**

**Anyway, reviews are greatly appreciated and , and I don't own anything in this story that you recognise. If you don't recognise it, then i've probably created it. And I'm not saying that again. That's my disclaimer for the whole , here we go.**

**Oh, and here's a family tree thing since there's heaps of OC's and I don't want to confuse your braincells (ages are relevant to the start of this story):**

**_Bill x Fleur = Victoire Marie (19), Dominique Mathilde (17), Louis Andre (15)_**

**_Fred x Angelina = Evelyn Sarah and Michael Benjamin (15), Stephanie Antonia (13), Noelle Amelia (11)_**

**_George x Katie = Colin Alexander (14), Eliza Leanne (11)_**

**_Percy x Audrey = Molly Francesca (15), Lucy Eleanor (11)_**

**_Ron x Hermione = Rose Charlotte (13), Hugo Lloyd (11)_**

**_Harry x Ginny = James Sirius (14), Albus Severus (13), Lily Luna (11)_**

**_Draco x Astoria = Scorpius Hyperion (13), Cassiopeia Cedrella (11)_**

**_Remus x Nymphadora = Teddy Remus (21), Violetta Olivia (17)_**

**_Luna x Rolf = Lorcan Ezra and Lysander Mason (16)_**

_**? x ? = Esther Charlotte and Michael Percival Green (11)**_

* * *

"Hurry up Hugo," Lily Potter yelled at her cousin. "We won't get a seat otherwise."

"I'm coming, I'm coming," puffed Hugo, pulling his trunk behind him and struggling to keep up.

It was September the first, the day the Hogwarts Express was due to leave Platform 9 ¾. It was also the first time Lily and Hugo would be taking the train. Both were due to start their first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

"Lily!" someone called and the red-haired girl looked up to see more of her cousins standing on the platform. Colin and Eliza Weasley, children of Fred and Katie Weasley were jumping up and down on their trunks and waving at her.

Changing the direction she was walking in. She headed over to them.

"Hi," she said, once she had reached them. "Is anyone else here yet?"

"Yeah. Dom and Lou are over there somewhere but otherwise we're the only ones. Where're your brothers?" asked Colin.

"With mum and dad," Lily replied, setting down her trunk. "Hugo was behind me, but I think he got lost in the crowds. Rose was with Aunt Hermione and Uncle Ron too."

"So we're only waiting on Evelyn, Mike, Steph, Noelle, Molly, Lucy, Scorp, Violet, Lorcan and Lysander." Listed Eliza, ticking of the various cousins and family friends on her fingers.

"Yeah, Molly's probably having kittens because they're running late," laughed Lily, thinking of how anxious her older cousin was. Apparently she took after her father in more ways than one.

"Hiya Colin, Eliza," came the voice of Harry Potter, Lily's father.

"Hi Uncle Harry," they chorused.

Harry set down two trunks and soon the voices of Lily's two older brothers, James and Albus could be heard through the noise on the platform.

"I'm telling you James, Scorp is a good guy! Stop bagging him out all the time." Albus was saying.

"Look at it Al, his grandfather, grandmother, father and mother were all on Voldemort's side during the war. He's been brought up surrounded by pure-blooded idiots who still believe that they're the best. Just because he's in Gryffindor, doesn't mean he'll turn out good. Take Peter Pettigrew for example." James retorted.

Lily sighed. Her brothers had been arguing about Scorpius Malfoy for the past year after he had become Albus' best mate. James was sceptical about him, and refused to believe that he as good. But Albus wouldn't hear any of it, and stuck by his friend.

Lily herself was over the arguments and didn't really give two damns about Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy. From what she could tell, he was an alright kid. And he wasn't her age, so she couldn't be more bothered about him.

"Boys, give it a rest." said their father as they approached the group. Albus huffed and folded his arms whilst James struck up a conversation with Colin about this year's Gryffindor Quidditch Team.

It wasn't long before the rest of the Weasley Clan plus friends arrived, and soon two Scamanders, two Malfoys, three Potters, 12 Weasleys and one Lupin were all assembled on the platform.

The guard blew his whistle, and there were many last minute goodbyes and checks that no one had forgotten anything before the kids scrambled onto the train to find seats.

Dominique and Violetta disappeared almost immediately to find the rest of the prefects, Lorcan and Lysander went to go and sit on their own, each sporting a pair of spectrespecs given to them by their mother.

"We'll see you ickle firsties later," said James, ruffling Lily's red hair and laughing, before leaving with Colin to sit with their other friends.

"Yeah, I'll see you at school Lils." Said Albus, and Scorpius smiled at her before the two boys turned and left.

It seemed that in no time at all, it was just Lily, Noelle, Eliza, Lucy, Cassiopeia and Hugo standing in the corridor of the train carriage by themselves.

"We'd better find a place to sit down before we meet some Slytherins," said Eliza with a small shudder. The others all nodded in agreement and went on a hunt in search of a compartment to sit in.

It took them a fair few minutes to find one, having started looking so late, but eventually they did and they all flopped down into their seats.

"This is a stupid question," began Hugo, "but what house does everyone think they're going to be in?"

"Gryffindor," was the immediate response from almost everyone in the compartment. Only Cassiopeia stayed quiet. She was a small girl for her age, and had long black hair which she often wore in a plat or a pony-tail.

"What's up Cass?" asked Lucy, looking at the other girl. "Don't you think you're going to be in Gryffindor?"

"The Malfoys have been in Slytherin for centuries," said Cassiopeia quietly. "What if –"

"But Scorp's in Gryffindor," pointed out Noelle.

"He's the only Malfoy to have _ever_ been a Gryffindor," retorted Cassiopeia. "I'll probably end up in Slytherin, and then everyone will hate me."

"We won't hate you Cass," said Eliza gently. "I doesn't matter what house you're in, you're still our friend."

"Really? Thanks guys," said Cassiopeia, smiling. The rest of the group smiled back and the conversation turned to the Holy Head Harpies, much to Hugo's disgust. It was at times like these when he hated only having five girls as his closest friends.

"I hope we win the league this year," said Lucy. "Our next game's against the Chudley Canons."

"Aunty Ginny and Uncle Ron will be arguing again then," laughed Noelle.

The rest of the group laughed too. It was no secret how passionate the brother and sister were about Quidditch and supporting their own teams, but it did cause for some interesting moments if the two teams ever came up against each other.

"I wish we'd be able to go," sighed Lily, twirling a few strands of her hair between her fingers.

"If only it was at the same time, but last year," said Cassiopeia. "Then we wouldn't be at school."

"But even Hogwarts beats a Quidditch match," said Lucy. "Besides, there's the inter-house Quidditch Cup to look forwards to."

"But we can't play," pointed out Lucy with a frown.

"Does it really matter?" asked Hugo, which was a big mistake because all five girls turned and glared at him.

"Honestly Hugo, not being able to play Quidditch is the worst thing in the world!" exclaimed Lily. "It's like not being allowed to drink water for a whole year!"

"I highly doubt it's that bad," said Hugo, but no one was listening to him anymore. He sighed and turned his attention to looking out the window. He wished there was someone who shared his passion of music and drawing. If only he hadn't packed his sketch book down the bottom of his trunk.

There was a knock on the compartment door, and it was slid open to reveal Molly Weasley (II) standing there, glasses perched on her nose, red hair pulled back in a tight pony-tail and prefect badge shining on her Gryffindor robes. "We'll be arriving soon guys, so you'd better get changed into your robes."

"Okay Mol, now scram," said Lucy standing up and shutting the compartment door in her older sister's face. "Honestly, I don't know how I'm related to her." She sighed and turned to face the group.

"Right, Hugo, you go and get us all chocolate frogs from the trolley while we get changed, then we'll wait outside while you get changed," ordered Lucy.

Lily could see quite a few ways that Lucy was similar to Molly, but Lucy would hex her into next week if she said so.

Hugo huffed and left the compartment, and the five girls stripped down and changed into the regulation robes that all first-years wore before being sorted into their house.

Hugo returned about ten minutes later and the five girls scrambled out to stand in the corridor whilst he got changed.

"Hey! Malfoy!"

The five girls looked up to see two Slytherin girls walking towards them.

"Who're you're friends?" one of them sneered.

"Uhh…t-this is Noelle, and Lucy, and Lily, and Eliza," said Cassiopeia, her voice shaking a little.

"What're you doing hanging around with Potters and Weasleys?" asked the other girl cruelly.

"T-they're m-my friends," stuttered Cassiopeia.

"Pfft! Another Malfoy, friends with Potters and Weasels? I hope you're not anything like your brother," laughed the first girl.

Cassiopeia shook her head.

"We'll see you in Slytherin then. We can show you who the _real_ wizards and witches are there," and with that the two girls shoved past the small group and continued on down the corridor.

"Oi!" said Hugo, flinging open the compartment door. "I've told you about five times that – what happened to Cass?"

The small girl had gone very pale after the encounter with the Slytherins and looked like she was about to burst into tears.

Lily ushered her back into the compartment, whilst Noelle and Lucy explained to Hugo what had happened.

"What the?! Is Scorpius really that hated among the Slytherins?" asked Hugo.

Cassiopeia nodded. "He doesn't tell anyone though," she sniffled. "He doesn't want the sympathy. But it's awful. Every time dad has dinner with Blaise and Pansy, their son is horrible to him. And sometimes he has Misters Crabbe and Goyle over and they use him as a punching bag. No one's done anything to me yet because they're all still convinced that I'll be in Slytherin."

"What about you mum and dad, surely they do something about it?" asked Eliza.

"No," said Cassiopeia. "Dad and mum barely talk to him anymore. That's why he spends so much time with Albus, because he's almost the only person who will talk to him. But James it always with Albus, and he hates Scorp, so it's still not nice."

Lily pulled a tissue out from her robe pocket and handed it to Cassiopeia. "My brother is an idiot," she said. "I wish I could make him stop but I can't without giving him a reason, and I'm sure Scorpius doesn't want him to know."

Cassiopeia shook her head. "He doesn't want _anyone_ to know. Including you guys, so it's probably best if you don't mention this."

"Sure thing," said Hugo as the train pulled into Hogsmeade station.

Hagrid's voice could clearly be heard above the din calling for all the First Years to follow him down to the boats.

The five collected their trunks and joined the other first years in the walk down to the Black Lake. Their first year at Hogwarts was about to begin.


	2. Chapter 2

"Malfoy, Cassiopeia," the low murmur in the Great Hall disappeared as they heard the name of the first year that had just been called by Professor Flitwick.

"Go on Cass," whispered Lily, giving her friend a small push from behind. "I'll see you in Gryffindor."

Cassiopeia gave her a shaky smile and walked slowly up to the stool. Once she was sitting on it, Flitwick gently placed the sorting hat on top of her head.

_ Ah, another Malfoy, eh? _ Said the Hat. Cassiopeia almost fell off the stool in shock.

_ You can talk to me? _ She asked.

_ Child, you sound like a Muggle. Of course I can talk. I'm a magic hat in a magic school! _The Hat exclaimed.

_ Oh, right,_ said Cassiopeia sheepishly.

_ With brains like that, I should put you in Hufflepuff, _the hat said.

_ No, please don't. I'm begging you,_ pleaded Cassiopeia. _Just put me in Gryffindor._

_ Ah, I see, you want to be with your brother,_ said the Hat.

_ No, I want to be with my friends,_ replied Cassiopeia.

_ But you would do well in Slytherin, just like all the other Malfoys have._

_ I don't want to be in Slytherin though._

_ You don't get a choice,_ said the hat, and before Cassiopeia could say anything else, the Hat had shouted SLYTHERIN for the whole school to hear.

Tears pricked at Cassiopeia's eyes as she trudged slowly over to sit with her new housemates. Lily would never talk to her again. Nor would Hugo, or Noelle, or Lucy, or Eliza. In fact, the only people that would probably speak to her now were her parents, and only because she was in Slytherin.

She watched in silence as "Potter, Lily" was called up by Flitwick and sorted into Gryffindor. She was followed by "Weasley, Hugo", "Weasley, Noelle", "Weasley, Lucy" and "Weasley Eliza".

"Great," Cassiopeia muttered under her breath. "No one to talk to."

"Welcome, welcome," McGonagall called from the head table. Cassiopeia slowly dragged her eyes up from her empty plate to look at the headmistress.

"I'm glad to see so many smiling faces back for another year. I have a few start-of-term announcements. Firstly, Mr Filch as asked me to remind you that the Forbidden Forest is out of bounds at all times to all students, unless they are there with teacher supervision. Also, spell casting is banned in the corridors before classes, after classes and in between. And finally, a list of the 632 banned items is pinned on his office door for anyone who wants to check up. Note that all Weasley's Wizard Wheezes items are on this list.

"Secondly, I would like to introduce you all to our new Transfiguration teacher. Professor Nymphadora Ton –"

"Don't call me Nymphadora!" growled a younger woman with bubble-gum pink hair. Cassiopeia stared at her for a minute, before she realised where she knew her from. She was Violetta Lupin's mother.

"- Professor Nymphadora Tonks." Continued Professor McGonagall, as if she had never been interrupted. "Please give her a warm Hogwarts welcome."

There was applause from all over the hall. But Cassiopeia could hear the cheers of delight from the Weasleys and Potters at the Gryffindor table.

"And now, let us all eat and sleep, for classes begin tomorrow morning and your brains must be ready for learning." Professor McGonagall said, and with a wave of her arms, food of every kind appeared on the tables in front of the students.

Cassiopeia filled her plate with everything from potato salad to Yorkshire pudding to roast lamb. She was absolutely starving. She ate her food greedily, and after a few moments, glanced up at the Gryffindor table.

She could have cried.

Lily, Hugo, Noelle, Lucy and Eliza seemed to be having the time of their lives, laughing and joking with their fellow Gryffindor's. They didn't seem to care that one of their best friends wasn't with them. She saw Lily turn to a girl with short black hair and say something to her, the black-haired girl responded sending them both into fits of laughter.

"Why such a long face?" someone asked Cassiopeia.

She turned her head and found that the owner of the voice was a girl with pale brown hair and sparkling blue eyes.

"All my friends are in Gryffindor," Cassiopeia mumbled, suddenly paying a lot of attention to her lettuce leaves.

"Sorry, I didn't quite catch that," the other girl responded.

"I said," said Cassiopeia, slightly louder. "All my friends are in Gryffindor!"

"Why's that making you so upset?" the other girl asked, helping herself to a slick of Yorkshire pudding.

"Because they were the only people I knew before I came here. Besides my brother of course," replied Cassiopeia.

"Wow, I feel so sorry for you. I'm Esther by the way. Esther Green. And this is my twin brother, Michael." A boy on the other side of Esther with the same coloured hair and eyes, plus glasses, waved at Cassiopeia.

"I'm Cassiopeia," she replied. "Cassiopeia Malfoy. But my friends call me Cass." She smiled at Esther and Michael. Maybe she would be able to make some new friends.

"Cassie!" someone exclaimed from further down the table, and Cassiopeia turned around to recognise the two older Slytherin girls from the train, who were slowly making their way towards her.

"Oh no," she groaned, as she turned back towards the table and waited for the worst.

"Cassie, we're so glad you're in Slytherin! We weren't so sure when you said you weren't anything like your brother, but now we know."

"Excuse me," interrupted Michael. "But who the heck are you?"

"You dare talk to us like that! You ungrateful little –" one of the girls growled, pulling out her wand and preparing to hex the boy.

"Stop Sissy! Not here!" the other one said, forcing the girl's arm down. "I'm Lucretia Lestrange, and this is my sister Lysandra."

"Lestrange…Are you related to Bellatrix?" Cassiopeia asked, thinking of her lunatic relative who was currently locked up in Azkaban.

"No you idiot, but she is our Aunt. Our dad is her husband's brother," Lucretia replied.

"How come I haven't seen you at family gatherings?"

"Cos dad's been trying to stay on the 'down low' ever since Uncle Rodulphus and Aunt Bellatrix got arrested. He's related to them so he could get arrested as well."

"FIRST YEARS!" a fifth year boy yelled from further down the table. "FOLLOW ME TO THE COMMON ROOM!"

"We'll see you later Cassie," Lysandra smiled before she and her sister turned around and headed back to their classmates.

"Who's this Bellatrix you were talking about?" asked Esther, as the three of them joined the rest of the Slytherin first years and filed out of the Great Hall.

"_Who's Bellatrix_?" asked Cassiopeia, shocked. "What planet have you been living on for the last ten years?! She's one of my many messed up relatives who're locked safely away in Azkaban because they supported Voldemort."

"What's Azkaban and who the hell is Voldemort?" asked Michael, looking even more confused.

Cassiopeia's jaw dropped so low, it almost hit the floor. "Oh Merlin," she muttered. "Is there anything you two know?" she asked them.

They shook their heads.

"We didn't even know we were magical until the owls came with our letters," replied Esther. "Poor Nan nearly had a heart attack when they tapped on her kitchen window."

"So you're muggleborn?" Asked Cassiopeia.

"What's a muggle?" asked Michael.

"A non-magical person," replied Cassiopeia quickly. "Anyway, Voldemort was this really evil wizard who loved dark magic, and then a baby was born called Harry Potter, and Voldemort learned that Harry was supposed to kill him when he gold older, so Voldemort went to kill Harry except the spell backfired and killed him. Or at least people thought it killed him, but he returned when Harry was fourteen and the Second Wizarding War began and then when Harry was seventeen he killed him and all his supporters called Death Eaters who hadn't been killed in the Battle of Hogwarts were locked up in Azkaban."

Esther and Michael were staring at her with wide eyes.

"How the hell –" began Esther.

"- do you know all this?" finished Michael.

"Because I know Harry Potter," replied Cassiopeia as they entered the dungeons.

"You WHAT?!" the twins half yelled.

"Shhh," Cassiopeia hushed, as other students turned to face them. "I said, I know Harry Potter. He's my friend Lily's dad."

"Wicked," the twins said in unison.

"Salazar," said the fifth year as they reached a blank stretch of stone wall. The stones slid aside to reveal a passageway which he then proceeded to lead the down.

They emerged into a large room which had a slightly greenish glow. The wall hangings were mostly in green and silver, and the Slytherin crest was hung above the fireplace which was surrounded by black leather sofas. There were also various desks and chairs scattered around the room.

"This is the Slytherin common room," the boy explained. 'As Slytherins, we have standards to uphold. As a house, we expect that your uniform will be worn neatly at all times and that you will be dressed in it for all three meals during the school week. Remember to wear you cloak at dinner time. Casual dress is permitted on the weekends, but it is expected that your full school uniform, cloak included, will be worn when there are guests present. Your bedtime is ten o'clock which leaves you with exactly one hour until you should be asleep." He looked around at the group before continuing. "Girls dorms are down the corridor on the left, boys' are down the corridor on the right. Your trunks should already be in your rooms. I'll see you all bright and early in the morning." And with that he disappeared down the boys' corridor.

Cassiopeia, Esther and Michael talked with each other for a while longer before the girls bade goodnight to Michael and went to find their dorm.

It wasn't too hard as it as the first door on the right and was clearly labelled _First Year Girls_. They pushed open the wooden door to reveal a room with five four poster beds with green and silver curtains around them. There were trunks at the foot of each bed and Cassiopeia soon spotted hers with her initials C.C.M. on it.

Esther's bed was one away from hers; a girl with the initials G.K. was between them.

They didn't have to wait long before their three dorm-mates burst through the door.

"Hi!" one of them exclaimed brightly. She had dark brown hair and green eyes. "I'm Mildred Hubble, and this is Greta King and Mabel Lewis. Purebloods. Who're you?" she asked.

"Cassiopeia Malfoy," Cassiopeia answered, and when the girls looked at her expectantly, she quickly added, "Pureblood."

Then they turned to Esther.

"Esther Green. Muggleborn," she replied, remembering the word that Cassiopeia had used earlier.

"Huh, a mudblood," muttered the girl who was supposedly called Greta. Esther didn't seem to hear her but Cassiopeia did and rage burned inside her. She was about to say something when Mildred filled the silence again.

"Lovely to meet you. Aren't you excited to be here at Hogwarts?"

Cassiopeia nodded. "But I'm dead tired too so I think I'm going to head off to sleep. Night Esther, Mildred, Mabel." And with that she grabbed her pyjamas off the top of her trunk and pulled the curtains closed, shutting her classmates out.

Eventually the other four girls did the same, and soon all five girls were asleep, dreaming of pink hippogriffs and yellow thestrals.


	3. Chapter 3

Monday morning dawned bright and early for the students of Hogwarts. Lily Potter awoke from her first night's sleep in the Gryffindor dormitories. Upon checking the small clock on her bedside table, she discovered that it was only 6:15 in the morning. Carefully and quietly, she slipped out of bed and pulled on her slippers and dressing gown. She would let her cousins and friend sleep for the remaining fifteen minutes.

Remembering what the prefect had told her last night before she went to bed, she collect her uniform from her trunk at the end of her bed and was surprised to find that her tie was different to what it had been the night before. Instead of being the regulation black with the Hogwarts school crest it was now red with thin gold stripes running across it diagonally.

Lily smiled and mentally thanked the house elves as she slipped out of the dorm as quietly as she could, which proved rather difficult with a heavy wooden door that squeaked.

She made her way down the stairs and into the large bathroom that she shared with the other 34 girls in Gryffindor. She headed into one of the last cubicles and undressed. After a quick shower, she redressed in her uniform and brushed her hair and teeth in front of a mirror.

She gathered up her pyjamas and slippers and re-climbed the stairs to her dormitory where she found that her roommates were still not awake.

An evil smile spread across her face as her brain came up with a plan. She went over to her trunk and disposed of her pyjamas, and then pulled out a rather large box labelled 'WWW'. It had been a present from her Uncles Fred and George. A box of all their products from their store, Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes. Well, all the ones her mother permitted her to have anyway. The patented daydream charms were well out of the question.

She lifted the lid and sorted through the items until she found what she was looking for. She took out three of the small black objects, closed the box and returned it to her trunk.

This was going to be fun.

Lily went and stood in the doorway and after counting slowly to three, she dropped the black objects onto the floor. Immediately, they grew legs and began to run all over the dorm, multiplying as they went. Then they stopped and for a second Lily thought that they had malfunctioned before they each spouted a black horn and blasted them at full volume.

It would be an understatement to say that the four other girls in the room woke up quickly.

"Merlin's beard Lily!" shouted Eliza. "I simple 'get up' would do!"

Lily was laughing so hard she could barely respond.

"Ah, but where would the fun in that be, dear cousin?" she responded when her laughter had calmed down a bit and she was wiping the tears from her eyes.

"That was not fun at all," said a voice from the doorway. Lily spun around to see her cousins Molly and Rose standing there, both looking very unimpressed with their hands on their hips and red hair pulled back in ponytails. The only difference was Molly's glasses.

"Thanks to you, the whole tower is awake now. Some of us enjoy our sleep," hissed Molly. "You'll be lucky if I don't tell Professor McGonagall about this." Rose nodded in agreement with her older cousin.

"Oh lighten up a bit Mol," said Lucy, walking over to her sister. "It was just a bit of fun, and no one got hurt."

"Yeah," Noelle agreed. "I think you're taking this prefect thing a bit seriously, _Molly-wobbles_." The first years all giggled at this statement. They had overheard Grandma and Grandpa Weasley once about a year ago, and he had been calling their grandma 'Molly-wobbles' since then, it had become their nickname for their older cousin.

Molly stiffened at the use of the dreaded name. "Don't _ever_ call me that again," she hissed, before taking Rose by the hand and leaving, slamming the door behind them.

"Well, someone got up on the wrong side of the bed today," said Lily, and her cousins all started laughing.

Madeline Cross, the only girl in the room who wasn't related to any of them was staring at them like they were from another planet.

Eliza was the first one to notice.

"Sorry you had to see that," she said indicating at the closed door. "We like to pretend we're not related to either of them. They have no sense of fun what-so-ever. We think they get it from their parents."

"Yeah," agreed Noelle. "Uncle Percy and Aunt Hermione are so strict and they never have any fun. Not like Aunt Audrey and Uncle Ron. But dad and Uncle George are the best."

"Why's that?" asked Madeline as she pulled her uniform out of her trunk and started to her changed.

"Because they are the biggest jokesters. They dropped out of school in their final year and started a joke shop," explained Noelle. "Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes. That's where those little noisy things came from. They're decoy detonaters, handy if you ever need to get out of anywhere unnoticed."

"Or for getting people out of bed in the morning," added Lily.

The girls laughed and headed down to the Great Hall.

They settled down at the Gryffindor table and Lily reached for some toast. She was just about to fill her goblet with water when she felt a tap on her shoulder.

"Miss Potter."

She turned around to see McGonagall standing there holding out a roll of parchment.

"You're timetable."

Lily reached for the roll. "Thanks Professor," she said, unrolling it while the professor gave Eliza, Noelle, Lucy and Madeline theirs too.

"Charms first," said Eliza, scanning her timetable. "But it's with the Hufflepuffs at least. We don't even have a lesson with the Slytherins until after lunch, thank Merlin."

"But Lizy," said Noelle, "don't you want to see Cassie? We haven't spoken to her since we were on the train yesterday."

"You honestly want to stay friends with her?" asked Eliza, rolling her timetable back up and shoving it into her red shoulder bag. "She got sorted into Slytherin for crying out loud. Gryffindors and Slytherins hate each other, remember?"

"Perhaps it doesn't have to be that way," said Madeline. "I for one want to meet this 'Cassie'. She seems nice."

"We'll introduce you in Potions," promised Lucy, finishing off the last of her pancakes. "By the way, does anyone actually know the way to the Charms classroom?"

Noelle, Lily and Madeline all shrugged their shoulders, but Eliza stood up.

"Follow me guys," she ordered. "Colin told me it was on the third floor so I guess all we have to do is head up, right?"

The five girls headed out of the hall and just as they were climbing the first flight of stairs they heard a pounding of footsteps behind them.

"Lily! Lizy! Noelle! Lucy! Wait up guys!" Hugo called as he ran towards them; a shorter boy with messy brown hair was running behind him. Both boys were gasping for breath when they finally caught up. "Do" gasp "any of" gasp "you" gasp "know where" gasp "the" gasp "Charms room is?" Hugo finally managed to get out.

"Yeah, third floor, that's where we're headed now," replied Lily. "Who's this?" she gestured to the brown-haired boy on Hugo's right.

"Ah, Kaleb these are my cousins Lily, Lucy, Noelle and Eliza," he motioned towards each girl as he said their name, "and this is…" he waved his hand in Madeline's direction.

"I'm Madeline Cross," the black haired girl smiled.

"Hi Kaleb," he other girls said, and then the group of seven continued on their way up the grand staircase towards the third floor.

It wasn't hard to miss the Charms classroom. There was already a small gathering of Hufflepuff and Gryffindor first years waiting outside the door.

The group joined the gathering and waited almost impatiently, shifting from one foot to another in their eagerness to see what their first Charms class at Hogwarts would be like.

After what seemed like a decade, the doors to the classroom swung open and the first years swarmed inside.

Lily grabbed a seat next to Madeline, while Noelle sat next to Lucy and Hugo sat next to Kaleb. Eliza was left to sit next to another Gryffindor boy who introduced himself as David.

"Welcome," squeaked a voice from the front of the room and Lily craned her neck to catch a glimpse of her professor. She finally saw him, balanced on a stack of books that was on the seat of his chair.

"Welcome to you first Charms class. Not always the most exciting, but definitely one of the most useful parts of a wizard's arsenal. I am Professor Flitwick. Now, does everyone have a copy of _The Standard Book of Spells: Grade 1_ by Miranda Goshawk?"

A general murmur of assent ran through the class and the Professor continued.

"Excellent, please turn to page five," he said as he hope of his stack of book and walked over to the blackboard.

Lily pulled her book out of her bag and flipped through the pages until she found the correct one. It was titled _Wingardium Leviosa: The Levitation Charm_. She smiled. This class was going to be fun.

After fifty minutes of taking notes and practicing the correct way to hold a wand, the first year Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs were released to their next class with instructions to practice the wand movement ready for the next class, where they would be trying out the spell.

Lily was practically skipping down the corridors towards their next class causing the rest of them to have to jog to keep up.

"What's got you so happy?" asked Hugo as they rounded a corner.

"Nothing, I just love learning magic. Actually, I love being at Hogwarts altogether," replied Lily as her short red hair swung behind her head.

"You won't be smiling much longer," said Noelle, slowing down to take her timetable out of her bag. "We have History of Magic next."

Lily's smile was gone before you could say Godric.

"What's so bad about History of Magic?" asked Kaleb.

"He's muggle-born," explained Hugo quickly, before any of the girls could say anything.

Lily nodded in understanding. "My brothers James and Albus say it's the most boring class," she said to Kaleb. "It's taught by a ghost, Binns. And apparently the sound of his voice puts the majority of the class to sleep."

They soon discovered that what Lily said was true. The only people who stayed awake enough throughout the fifty minute period to take any notes at all were Lucy and Kaleb.

"How the heck did you manage that?" asked Eliza in amazement as they headed down to lunch, then she added to Lucy. "Could you lend them to me to copy please?"

"And why should I do that?" asked Lucy as they entered the Great Hall.

"Because I'm your younger cousin by two days and you love me very much," replied Eliza very quickly, putting on a puppy dog face.

"Oh, all right. And I suppose you lot want them too," Lucy said, looking at the rest of her cousins and her friend. They nodded eagerly.

The group was just tucking into freshly made sandwiches done by the house elves when Hugo looked up and turned as white as a ghost. And that was probably because he'd just seen one.

The rest of the group turned around to see the Gryffindor house ghost floating behind them.

"Hello Sir Nick," said Lily smiling at the ghost her brothers had told her so much about.

"Ah, hello," said the ghost. "You must be Lily. James told me you were starting at Hogwarts this year. It's good to see you in Gryffindor."

Lily beamed and looked at her cousins.

"Who are you?" asked Madeline, looking shocked that the ghost knew her friend.

"I," said Nick, puffing out his chest and placing his hands on his hips, "am Sir Nicholas De Mimsy Porpington. Resident house ghost of Gryffindor house."

"Otherwise known as Nearly-Headless Nick," added Eliza softly, knowing that the ghost took offence to that name when it was used in conversation. Although he always had no problem demonstrating how he had earned himself that name.

"How the hell can someone be 'nearly headless'?" asked Kaleb.

_ Oh no_, Lily groaned in her head. Her brothers had also warned her about this.

"Like this," said Nick, tilting his head to the side and letting it fall into his waiting hand. It was only attached to his neck by a small sliver of skin. "Time and time again, the headless hunt have rejected me, claiming that all members must be completely decapitated, but nevertheless, I will join their ranks someday," he sighed with a mournful look before floating off down the table, passing through a couple of fourth year girls, making them squeal.

"Well wasn't that a delightful experience," said Lucy, pushing her half-eaten lunch away from her. "I can't say I really want to eat anymore now."

"Me either," Madeline shook her head, glaring at Kaleb for asking the question.

"Should we head down to Potions?" asked Hugo. No one except Eliza protested so the group packed up and headed down to the dungeons, preparing for their first potions lesson with Slytherin house.


	4. Chapter 4

"So, what's this Professor Slughorn like?" asked Michael as he walked with Esther and Cassiopeia towards the dungeons for their first potions lesson. None of the first year Slytherins had had a chance to meet their head of house yet and they were all curious to meet the potions master.

"Scorp says he's nice, but he can be really strict. He doesn't play favourites," Cassiopeia replied, remembering stories she had heard from the Potter and Weasley families about the previous potions master who had favoured Slytherin greatly and shunned Gryffindor to the point where he ordinarily would have been dismissed as a teacher.

Cassiopeia was also excited because she was finally going to be able to introduce Esther and Michael to Lily, Noelle, Eliza, Lucy and Hugo. She was sure that they would all like each other.

"Oi, you! First year!" a loud voice behind them called. The trio spun around to see s tall Slytherin prefect stalking towards them. The same on that had lectured them in the common room the previous night.

"Didn't you listen to me last night? Uniform is to be worn _neatly,_" he growled at Michael as he got closer. "That means tucking your bloody shirt in at the back."

Michael turned bright red and reach behind himself to tuck in the offending piece of material.

"Much better," said the prefect. "And make sure you keep it that way. Otherwise I'll have to dock house points." He turned to walk away. "Oh, and Malfoy, straighten your tie."

Cassiopeia reached down at tugged at her tie, glaring at the prefects back. "He was just bluffing," she assured the twins. "Prefects can't really dock points. Lily's brothers told me. They heard it from McGonagall herself."

Michael let his shoulders sag in relief and the three of them continued on their way to Potions. Barely making it in time.

The door to the classroom was still shut though and Cassiopeia spotted her Gryffindor friends standing in a huddle with the girl she recognised as the one Lily had been laughing with at dinner the previous night and a boy she didn't recognise at all.

"Hi guys," she said as she walked up to them. "How has your first day been so far?"

"Hey Cassie," smiled Lily, pulling her friend into a hug. Noelle, Lucy and Hugo smiled at her. But Eliza pointedly looked away and busied herself with the fastenings on her bag.

"Cassie, this is Madeline. She's our dorm mate," said Lucy, introducing her to the black-haired girl. "And that's Kaleb. He's Hugo's friend." The boy waved at her.

Cassiopeia smiled at both of them before turning to the twins.

"Guys," she said. "This is Lily Potter, Noelle, Lucy, Hugo and Eliza Weasley and Madeline and Kaleb," she indicated to each person in turn.

Just then the doors to the Potions room swung open and their professor appeared in the doorway.

"Come in, come in," he said as he ushered them all into the cool dungeon classroom. "We have much to get on with today."

Cassiopeia followed Noelle into the room and went to sit between her and Esther when Professor Slughorn interrupted.

"Before anyone gets comfortable in a seat, please take all your belongings with you and stand at the back of the room. I will assign you all a seating partner for the term and you will work with them until I switch you all around after Christmas."

The class groaned and moved to the back of the room. Cassiopeia was curious as to who she would be sitting next to. She had a really high chance of sitting next to one of her friends in this class.

"Seating order will be like this: Esther Green and Lily Potter, Mildred Hubble and Noelle Weasley, Greta King and Lucy Weasley, Mabel Lewis and Madeline Cross, Cassiopeia Malfoy and Eliza Weasley," the five pairs of girls moved forwards to claim workspaces in the classroom.

Cassiopeia sat down next to Eliza and pulled out some clean parchment, a quill and her text book and then turned to Eliza.

"Hey Lizy," she said, "I haven't spoken to you since yesterday. How've you been?"

"Fine," mumbled Eliza, getting out her books, "and don't call me Lizy."

"Aw, why not? You never minded me calling you that before," whined Cassiopeia.

"Yeah, well things are different now," snapped Eliza, dropping her beg onto the floor with a loud thud.

"How?" asked Cassiopeia, starting to get a bit annoyed now. Why was Eliza acting like this? "How are things any different to what they were yesterday?"

"Because, in case you hadn't noticed, I'm in Gryffindor and you're in Slytherin," said Eliza, as if that explained everything.

"And why should that matter?"

"Because Slytherin is a hell hole. No god witch or wizard has ever come out of it. You know that. Just look at your mother and father," snapped Eliza.

Cassiopeia's face turned red with fury. "How _dare_ you talk about my mum that way!" she yelled, making several people in the room turn to look at the two girls. "You've never even met her for crying out loud! She's is the sweetest, kindest person you'll ever meet!"

"Oh yeah, then how come she didn't do anything all those times your father beat you brother over the summer," asked Eliza, getting angry as well.

Cassiopeia let out a shocked gasp and stood up, glaring at her friend. "You know _nothing_ about my family," she snarled. "Don't even try to wrap your thick Gryffindor head around it, you'll only confuse yourself."

And with that, Cassiopeia Malfoy grabbed her books and her bag and stalked out of the classroom. Not even caring that the lesson hadn't even started yet. No one had ever upset her as much as Eliza Weasley had in that moment.


	5. Chapter 5

Lily couldn't remember a time where she had felt more conflicted. Her younger cousin and best friend weren't talking to each other and the rest of her cousins and Kaleb seemed to have taken Eliza's side. Esther and Michael had sided with Cassiopeia and none of them were speaking to any of the Gryffindors. All of the Gryffindors except Madeline were refusing to speak to Lily because she didn't want to take sides.

Cassiopeia had both received detentions on Saturday from Slughorn for their display in class but that didn't mean that they were on speaking terms with each other.

It was getting really annoying and she hated it so much.

It was about four days after the big blow up, and Lily and Madeline were walking down to the Quidditch pitch on a Friday afternoon for their first flying lesson with the Slytherins.

If she was perfectly honest with herself, she was nervous. She was scared that she wasn't going to be any good ay flying. Her family almost expected her to be. Both her brothers were on the Gryffindor team already. James was the Keeper and Albus was a Chaser and her father and mother had been the Seeker and a Chaser respectively when they were at Hogwarts.

She didn't voice any of these fears to Madeline though, she only kept her mouth clamped tightly shut and her eyes fixed on the grass in front of her. She was also honestly scared that Cassiopeia and Eliza would have another argument and that was the last thing the world needed at this moment.

Soon enough, they had reached the pitch where two neat rows of broomsticks were laid out on the grass. She saw Cassiopeia already standing there with Esther and Michael and decided to try and talk to them. After all, Cassiopeia couldn't be mad at her surely. She hadn't even done anything wrong.

She took Madeline by the hand and began to lead her over to the trio. Well, at least she tried to. Madeline had planted both her feet firmly in the ground and didn't look like she was going anywhere.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" she asked her friend.

"Why wouldn't it be?" asked Lily, looking at Madeline. "She's my friend and I want to talk to her. Of course it's a good idea."

"She's you friend who's currently not speaking to all your cousins," pointed out Madeline, "therefore, she may not want to speak to you either."

"Fine," Lily huffed, and let her friend lead her away from the Slytherin trio and towards some broomsticks on the other side where the rest of the Gryffindors were standing.

"Good morning class!" said the happy voice of their flying teacher. The dull chattering died down and the first years turned to face the speaker.

She was tall with rather short hair that was a dark brown colour. She looked friendly enough, but Lily could tell she was a teacher that didn't tolerate any mucking about.

"Welcome to your first flying lesson," the teacher continued, looking around at them all. "I am Madam Hooch and I'm in charge of making sure that you all know how to fly one of those," she pointed at one of the broomsticks on the ground, "by the end of the year. So what are you waiting for?" she looked at the class like they were crazy. "Everyone step up to the left side of a broom and hold your hand out over it."

The class was a bustle of movement for a minute as every tried to get by a broomstick. Soon enough, they settled down and Lily saw that she was opposite Cassiopeia. She tried desperately to catch the girls eye, but with no success. Michael saw her though, and sent her a nasty scowl before turning his attention back towards Madam Hooch.

Lily was hurt and it took her a few moments before her ears retuned to what her teacher was saying.

"…so to start with I want you to keep your hand over your broom and say 'up'." The teacher finished. She stepped back and the class took that as a cue to begin.

Soon the Quidditch pitch was filled with shouts as the first years tried to get their brooms up into their hand, and yells of surprise as it worked and the force of the broom hitting their hand surprised them.

Lily looked down at her broom nervously and said tentatively, "Up."

Nothing happened.

She tried again. "Up."

"More force Potter," said Madam Hooch coming up behind her. "You have to really mean it."

Lily thought all of this was rather ridiculous. At no other time in her life would she ever have to say up to a broom before flying it. But she figured she had better try for the sake of her teacher.

"Up, up, up, up, UP!" Madeline was yelling beside her. But her broom merely rolled over on the ground as if it was incredibly bored with this whole ordeal.

She looked back at her own broom and figured that one more try wouldn't hurt anyone. She stuck her hand out over her broom. "Up!" she commanded and to her greatest surprise, the broom turned itself vertical and began to sweep the grass.

The whole class was laughing hysterically at the broom, but Madam Hooch looked incredibly angry.

"Who did this?" she asked angrily, glaring at the group of first years as if she was expecting them to own up to using advanced magic to jinx a school broom.

Just then, Lily heard something that sounded familiar from up above her. She looked up and saw her brother James and her cousin Colin sitting in one of the spectators stands laughing themselves silly. Unfortunately, Madam Hooch had seen them too and she looked ready to kill.

"POTTER! WEASLEY! YOU GET DOWN HERE THIS MINUTE!" she yelled, glaring up at them.

Still laughing, the two boys swung themselves onto their brooms and flew down to the class.

"You called, Professor?" asked James, grinning from ear to ear.

"Yes. What in Merlin's name did you two boys think you were doing, jinxing a school broom? Someone could have been seriously injured."

"Ah, come on now Hoochie," said Colin. "We would never do anything to hurt someone. We just wanted a laugh."

"Well you can be telling that to your head of house," snapped Madam Hooch as she took the two boys by the arms and began to lead them up to the school. "Class dismissed!" she called over her shoulder, and the first years scattered. Glad to have the rest of their Friday afternoon free.

"What do you want to do?" asked Madeline as the two girls strolled back up to the castle.

"We could start on that Transfiguration essay that Tonks set us for homework," suggested Lily as they crossed the clock tower courtyard which was empty as the rest of the school was in lessons, minus a few sixth and seventh years, who were probably cooped up in their dorms or the library studying.

"Uh, no thanks," said Madeline. "We have the whole weekend to do that. Why can't we do something fun?"

"The weekend will be gone before we know it," argued Lily. "We should get it done now and then we can relax for the next two days."

"No we can't," responded Madeline. "we have to get dried nettles for Potions on Monday."

Lily groaned at the thought of that. It was the one lesson where Cassiopeia and Eliza were forced to interact, and even though they did, the tones of their voices when the spoke to each other made Lily's skin crawl. After just five days at school, everything had gone so wrong.

"Fine, we'll get the nettles early tomorrow morning," she said, as the climbed the grand staircase. "We can leave them in the common room by the fire so that they dry out during the day. But that means we have to do our essays now."

"Okay," grumbled Madeline, as they reached the portrait of the Fat Lady.

"Dragon's blood," said Lily, and the portrait swung open, permitting the two girls to enter the cosy common room.

"Hey Lily," asked Madeline, a smile appearing on her face.

"What?" said Lily absentmindedly, heading up to the dormitories to get her books.

"Can you write my introduction for me?"


	6. Chapter 6

The weeks at Hogwarts were flying by and it was now the beginning of October, meaning that everyone in the castle (staff included) were preparing for the big Halloween feast that was to happen on the thirty-first.

Cassiopeia Malfoy however, was looking forwards to something a little closer in the future.

It was her birthday in a week's time and she was wondering exactly what would happen. She still wasn't speaking to everyone in Gryffindor, and she had no idea if Esther and Michael had thought to get her something. Scorpius would probably get her chocolates or something from Hogsmeade this weekend, and she wasn't really getting her hopes up for anything from her parents. They were always too busy to remember her and her brother's birthdays.

But it didn't matter. She was turning twelve in a week, and twelve was old enough to look after herself. She'd already decided she was staying at Hogwarts for the Christmas break for the next seven years. She didn't want to have to be around all the people her father invited over and have to pretend to act civil around them.

She sighed and set down her quill. She was finishing her essay on werewolf bite treatments for her Defense Against the Dark Arts class that she had next. She was sure she was missing something blindingly obvious, but her brain wasn't in the mood to think very hard. She hastily scribbled a conclusion and stuffed her belongings into her bag. She had just enough time to join Esther and Michael in the Great Hall for a quick lunch before they had to go to class.

She ran out of the library at such a speed that she sent the stack of books Professor Flitwick was precariously balancing, flying as she ran down the Charms corridor.

"Oh, I'm so sorry Professor," she cried bending down to help pick them up.

"Not to worry, not to worry," he said with a smile, as he flicked his wand and the books all floated into his classroom. "I should have just done that in the first place. Have a good day Miss Malfoy." He followed the floating books into his room and closed the door.

Cassie shrugged and continued on to the Great Hall. It was emptying by now. Most of the older students had already eaten and were moving to their next lesson or making the most of a bit of extra study time. Thankfully, Esther and Michael were still sitting at the Slytherin table.

"Hey guys," said Cassiopeia as she sat down between them.

"Where've you been?" asked Michael, taking off his glasses and cleaning them on his jumper before putting them back on, brushing his dirty blond hair out of his eyes.

"I was finishing that essay on cures of werewolf bites for Professor Longbottom. It's due today," she replied, helping herself to a sandwich.

"Damn it," said Esther, "I completely forgot. Is there any chance I could borrow yours to copy off of?"

"Nope, sorry," replied Cassiopeia. "Besides, you wouldn't have time. We have exactly here minutes to get to the classroom anyway."

The three first years raced out of the Great Hall and up the staircases as fast as they could. However, they couldn't avoid the fact that when they finally entered the classroom, they were ten minutes late.

"Ah Miss Malfoy, Mr and Miss Green, how nice of you to join us," said Professor Longbottom from the front of the room where he was talking to the class about how they would identify a werewolf.

"We're sorry Professor," said Cassiopeia. "We forgot to check the time. It won't happen again," she promised.

"Very well," said the Professor. "I presume you all have your essays to give me."

Cassiopeia and Michael nodded and handed over their rolls of parchment while Esther hung her head.

"And where is yours, Miss Green?" asked Professor Longbottom as he added Cassiopeia's and Michael's to the pile.

"Not finished," she mumbled, not looking up.

"I'm sorry Miss Green, I didn't quite catch that. Could you please speak up," asked the Professor, looking at his student.

"I said, it's not finished," she replied, lifting her head a little.

"Ah," said the Professor. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to take five points from Slytherin for that. I'll need you to get it to me by lunch time tomorrow. I'll be in my office. You may sit down now."

The trio sat down in their usual seats. Cassiopeia and Esther next to each other, and Michael next to Timothy Small, another Slytherin boy.

It was about halfway through the lesson when the Professor changed the subject. He wiped the blackboard of all the notes he had asked them to copy down and asked them all to stand at the back of the room.

"I think it's about time we did some practical work," he said, rubbing his hands together. "It's time to learn your first offensive spell, the stunning spell."

Cassiopeia's eyes lit up. She was finally saved from boring theory.

"Please pair up, and I will teach you how to cast it. We will practise on each other for the remainder of the lesson." He waved his wand and the desks were suddenly stacked against the walls and a pile of soft cushions was in the centre of the room. "Take a cushion and put it behind you after you are facing your partner," called the Professor. "I don't expect any of you to master this spell first time, but I have to take safety precautions."

Cassiopeia and Esther grabbed a cushion each and picked a spot over in the corner, as far away from the Gryffindors as possible. It was an unspoken rule between them and Michael that they were never going to talk to them again.

"Wonderful," said the Professor when everyone was paired up. "First things first, the incantation. Everyone, repeat after me: _stupefy._"

"_Stupefy_," came the echo.

"And the wand movement," said the Professor, pulling out his wand and moving it in a clockwise circle. "Please copy."

Cassiopeia pulled out her wand and tried the movement. It wasn't all that difficult and she was looking forwards to trying it out. Not that she wanted to specifically try it on Esther, but if she could at least master this spell by the Christmas holidays, then she had something to protect herself with against her father and his friends.

"Alright, now I want you to combine both of them and try casting it on your partner. I'll come around and give you some assistance if you need it. You may begin."

The classroom was full of shouts as the first years all tried to stun their partners. Cassiopeia let Esther go first and stood there, waiting.

"_Stupefy_!" cried Esther, waving her wand, but nothing happened.

"Try again," encouraged Cassiopeia. "Perhaps be a bit gentler with your wand movement."

"_Stupefy_!" cried Esther again, and to Cassiopeia's great surprise, she was thrown backwards onto her cushion.

"Excellent Miss Green!" exclaimed Professor Longbottom, coming over to the pair. "Perhaps duelling will be a strength for you. You should consider signing up for the duelling club next year perhaps."

Esther blushed at her teachers praise and the Professor turned his attention to Cassiopeia. "Let's see you have a go, Miss Malfoy."

Cassiopeia raised her wand, her hand was shaking slightly. What if she messed up in front of her Professor? What if she could never cast the spell? She was getting good grades at the moment in an attempt to prove her worth to her parents, but what if not being able to cast this spell brought it down.

_ It's okay_, she thought to herself. _It's only my first try. It doesn't matter if I can't do it. Loads of other people probably can't do it either_. But a quick glance around the room told her that she was wrong. Every other student in the room was managing to send their partner toppling backwards onto their mat. Even Hugo, who Cassiopeia knew to be the sweetest, calmest boy she had ever met, he would even try to give CPR to an ant if he accidentally trod on it, was managing to knock his partner over.

"I'm waiting, Miss Malfoy," said the Professor. "We haven't got all day."

Cassiopeia nodded and focused on Esther.

"_Stupefy_!"

Nothing happened.

"Keep working at it," said the Professor, and he moved on to help Michael and Timothy.

Cassiopeia sighed and raised her wand to try again. "_Stupefy_!"

Still nothing happened.

By the end of the lesson. Esther had sent her stumbling back onto the cushion more times than she could count, but she still hadn't even made Esther wobble.

"I don't understand!" she exclaimed as the three of them walked out of the room at the end of the lesson. "How can I not cast the spell?"

"Don't beat yourself up over it," said Michael, pushing his glasses up his nose. "It doesn't really matter. He's not grading us on it until the end of term. You can practise on me in the common room if you like."

"But I have to be really good at it," said Cassiopeia. "I need to protect myself from –" she cut herself off.

"From who?" asked Esther curiously. Cassiopeia still hadn't told her friends about what happened to her and her brother at home. She had managed to brush off what Eliza had yelled in Potions all those weeks ago as something she had said to work Cassiopeia up.

"It doesn't matter," muttered Cassiopeia. "Say, do you want to go and sit outside? It's not that cold today."

"Sure," said Esther, and the three of them trooped outside to enjoy the last of the sunshine for a few months.

After half an hour by the lake, talking about the things the twins had done in their Muggle school before they came to Hogwarts and what Cassiopeia had done to amuse herself before she started, they headed back inside to get ready for Potions.

"Oi! Snakes!" someone shouted behind them. The three turned around to see the Gryffindor gang walking towards them.

"Where do you think you're going?" asked Eliza.

"To our common room, you idiot," replied Cassiopeia.

"No you're not," replied Eliza, drawing her wand. "You're going to fight me."

"Are you crazy?" exclaimed Esther. "You heard what Professor Longbottom told us. We're not allowed to use magic in the corridors."

"Ah, who cares." Said Eliza. "No one's around, so no one needs to know."

"Don't do it Cassie," said Esther to her friend.

Cassiopeia just glared at her former friends before turning and stalking towards the staircase down to the dungeons.

"Running away are you?" jeered Eliza. "You're a coward, just like your father!"

Cassiopeia froze. She _hated_ being compared to her father.

"Shut. Up." She snarled, without turning around.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" asked Eliza, winking at Noelle and Kaleb, who also drew their wands.

"I said, shut up," repeated Cassiopeia, turning around to face them again.

"Or what?" asked Eliza.

"Or I'll write to your family," said Cassiopeia, grinning evilly. She knew what would happen if Eliza's grandma found out about this. She was quite eager to hear the howler that would get sent.

She didn't have much time to relish in that thought though before she had three wands aimed at her.

"_Stupefy_!" the three Gryffindors cried ad Cassiopeia stood their frozen in shock.

Then there was a blur of black, green and silver as Michael dove in front of her and took the impact of the spells. He crashed into her so she broke the fall a little for him. But they both ended up on the ground. Michael had hit his head on the floor and his glasses were broken.

"Oh look, her little mudblood friend decided to save her," giggled Eliza, Noelle and Kaleb joined in.

"I have one question for you," said Cassiopeia, as Esther helped her and Michael up. The two girls then slung one of Michael's arms each over their shoulders. "When do you become such a bitch?" She then turned to Esther, "We'd better take him to the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey can sort him out."

Esther nodded and the two girls started to half drag, half carry Michael up the stairs.

"Cass! CASSIE! CASSIOPEIA WAIT!" she could hear Lily, Madeline and Hugo racing up behind them.

She spun around to face them; causing Esther to stagger as she suddenly had to take all of Michael's weight. "What?" she snapped.

"They didn't mean it, they really didn't," said Lily.

"Yeah, well they certainly looked like they did," she snarled.

"But they didn't , I swear. It was a horrible thing to do," protested Lily.

"But you didn't do anything to stop them, did you?" asked Cassiopeia. "So it can't have been that bad."

When Lily didn't answer she turned around to help Esther again. But before she could get hold of Michael's arm again, she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"But Cassie," said Hugo, "we're your friends. You have to believe us."

"It's Cassiopeia to you," she said shortly, without turning around. "You're no friends of mine."


	7. Chapter 7

Now that Cassiopeia had completely severed off all communication with the Gryffindors, Lily found her time at Hogwarts was getting more and more miserable every day she spent there. She couldn't wait to go home for Christmas.

She still hadn't quite forgiven her cousins for what they had done to Michael, but thankfully he had been fine. She had overheard Cassiopeia and Esther talking about him the day after the incident.

Cassiopeia's birthday had passed just over a month ago now, and Lily didn't really like to remember it.

Since she hadn't been able to get anywhere near Cassiopeia on her birthday, she had used a school owl to send her the scrap book she had made for her. She had planned for it to arrive after classes had finished for the day.

However, when Lily returned to the Gryffindor common room after being out in the Transfiguration courtyard with Hugo and Madeline, she had found the package on her bed, unopened with a note attached to the outside.

_Lily,_

_ Don't bother sending me presents. You can't win back our friendship like that. Keep this stupid thing for yourself._

_ Sincerely,_

_ Cassiopeia Cedrella Malfoy_

Tears had stung Lily's eyes that day. Her best friend of seven years hated her. She had sought out her brothers for comfort, but they had been too busy with Quidditch practices for the upcoming game against Ravenclaw to offer her any real comfort.

And so, Lily had spent the past month with only Madeline to keep her company, but even Madeline wasn't interested in hearing Lily complain about her family. She claimed she didn't want to get involved in things that didn't concern her, and as far as she was aware, this was between Lily, her cousins, Cassie, Esther and Michael.

It was in low spirits that Lily slumped off to her Transfiguration lesson on Tuesday after lunch. She wasn't really in the mood for trying to turn a matchstick into a needle. It was completely pointless, just like her match seemed to be every time she tried.

She joined her class outside the room before Professor Tonks swung the doors open and they filed in.

"Wands away," the Professor ordered as several students, including Lily, went to pull them out of their robes. "We'll be taking notes today."

There was a mixed response of joy and groans as wands were switched for ink, quills and parchment.

"Transfiguration," began Tonks, "is one of the most important skills you will need to know as a witch or wizard. However, you will also need to know that limitations. These are known as Gamp's Laws of Elemental Transfiguration." She waved her wand and the words appeared at the top of the blackboard, when she spoke no more, the class took that as a cue to copy them onto their parchment.

"There are five laws in total," said Professor Tonks. "Rule number 1: food cannot be created out of thin air. It can be summoned if you know where it is, multiplied if you already have some, or even vanished, but you cannot create it from nothing.

"Second law: money also cannot be created out of thin air; otherwise, what would be the point of Gringotts? Why would you want to keep your money safe if you knew you could just create more of it? Money can only be summoned. Not created, multiplied or vanished.

"The third law is that you cannot regrow parts of the human body that have been cursed away. For example, many of you will know Mr George Weasley, one of the owners of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, is missing an ear. It was cursed off by a Death Eater during the Second War and no one was able to grow it back."

Tonks stopped for a bit and took a sip from the goblet of water she had on her desk. The first years were all scribbling away on their parchment, trying to write down everything she was saying. She flicked her wand lazily, and the first three laws appeared on the blackboard underneath the heading.

"The third law leads us onto the fourth law," she said, "and that is you cannot create or multiply a human being. You can transform into them with the use of Polyjuice Potion, but you cannot multiply them. And I don't recommend summoning them either, it doesn't work very well.

"And finally, the fifth law is that you cannot bring a human back from the dead. Surely you all know the Tale of the Three Brothers?" Tonks asked, looking around the class. She saw many students nodding, but a few shook their heads. She presumed they must be muggleborn; hence they weren't brought up with wizard's children's stories.

"The fifth law says that you cannot bring someone back from the dead as they no longer belong in this world. They belong in the afterlife and will be sad and miserable in our world. There is one object in the world that would let you bring someone back, but it was lost long ago and is referenced in The Three Brothers. Does anyone know what it is?"

A few tentative hands were raised, and she looked around for who to pick.

"Yes, Lily?" she asked the red-haired Gryffindor.

"The Resurrection Stone," replied Lily.

"Correct, ten points for Gryffindor. The Resurrection Stone was lost during the final Battle of Hogwarts. No one knows where it is and I do not advise _any_ of you to go looking for it."

Her eyes focused on Hugo and Kaleb for a few seconds before drifting back to the rest of the class.

"Right, has everyone copied all that down? If you have, take out your wands and matchsticks and practice turning them into needles. You should all be able to do it before we break up for Christmas."

Lily set down her quill and rolled up her parchment that she had been taking notes on. She really hated this class.

She pulled out her wand and matchstick and glanced over at Madeline who was sitting next to her. Madeline was talented at Transfiguration, her match had become slightly shiny after several tries in their first lesson and she was well on her way to turning her whole box of matches into needles.

Lily turned to her own match and focused. She was going to do this. She had to. How was she going to pass her Transfiguration O.W.L. if she couldn't even do basic first year stuff?

"Are you okay, Lils?" asked Madeline, looking over at her friend who seemed severely distressed.

"No," Lily shook her head. "This stupid match won't turn itself into a needle."

"Try again," encouraged Madeline. "I'll watch and see if I can give you any tips."

Lily raised her wand and recited the incantation, closing her eyes focusing on turning the match in front of her into a needle. When she opened them, the match was no different.

"Here," said Madeline, placing her hand on top of Lily's which was holding her wand. "Try moving you hand a little more like this, and make sure you're saying it right. It's _ex__par__acu_."

Lily nodded and tried again…and again…and again. She tried for the whole lesson, and finally, just before Professor Tonks called for them to pack up, she smiled in delight. Her match had a silver tinge to it.

"YES!" shouted Lily, forgetting she was in a classroom for a moment.

"Miss Potter," called Professor Tonks. "Please refrain from shouting whilst indoors."

"Sorry Professor," responded Lily, with a huge grin on her face. She had made progress.

"Homework for tonight," called Tonks from the front of the room. "Please keep working on turning your match into a needle, and I want an essay on Gamp's Laws of Elemental Transfiguration. Two rolls of parchment long, to be handed up after the Christmas break."

The class groaned as they packed their things into their bags. The last thing they wanted was holiday homework.

"Lily," called Professor Tonks. "Could you stay behind for a few minutes? I need to talk to you about something."

Lily nodded and turned to Madeline. "You go ahead. I'll meet you in the common room."

Madeline agreed and left the room.

"Come up here Lily and have a seat," the Professor offered, sitting down behind her desk.

Lily walked slowly forward and settled into a seat opposite.

"Would you like a chocolate frog?" Tonks offered. Lily shook her head and Tonks set the jar down again. "Now, I've noticed there's something going on between you and Cassiopeia Malfoy in Slytherin. Is there anything wrong?"

Lily sighed and shook her head. She didn't want to get her cousins into trouble by telling the Professor the full story. It would surely get reported to McGonagall and then their parents would find out and Christmas would be living hell.

"No Professor, it's nothing major."

"Are you sure?" Tonks asked, concern in her voice.

Lily nodded. "I'm positive. It's nothing we can't work out."

Tonks smiled. "Okay then. Oh, and tell your mother that Remus and I accept her offer to come over on Boxing Day. Teddy and Violetta will come too." She added as Lily stood up to leave.

"Sure, Tonks," she smiled.

"Don't forget Miss Potter, it's _Professor_," Tonks smiled back at the eleven year old.

"Okay, _Professor _Nymphie," said Lily, and ran out of the room before her teacher could get angry.


	8. Chapter 8

Cassiopeia was miserable to say the least. She was stuck in Malfoy Manor with the rest of her horrible family with no one to talk to. Their pet cats Salem and Maggie were her only company. Even her brother had managed to escape the Manor for the Christmas break. He had practically lived at the Potter's house ever since he had started at Hogwarts, so it had been no surprise to Cassiopeia when Scorpius had told her that he wouldn't be returning to the Manor for Christmas. She was waiting for the day when he would announce that he was moving out.

Lily and the rest of the Gryffindors still weren't talking to her, and Esther and Michael had been so excited about seeing their Nan and telling her all about Hogwarts that she hadn't wanted to force herself upon them and ask to go to their house for the break.

So she was stuck sitting at her window-facing desk in her bedroom, doodling hippogriffs on the corner of her Charms essay that she was supposed to be writing to hand up to Professor Flitwick next term.

"Cassiopeia!" called her mother from the drawing room downstairs.

She jerked her head away from the window she had been staring out of and yelled a response. "What?"

"Not 'what', 'pardon'," corrected her mother, still yelling. "And could you come here please?"

Cassiopeia sighed and pushed herself up from her seat wondering what her mother wanted. Neither of her parents had spoken to her very much at all since she had returned home three days ago and she was taking this as a good sign. Surely if she had done something wrong she would have been beaten the moment she walked through the door.

She took the stairs two at a time like she usually did and appeared in the door of the drawing room, where her mother often sat to play their piano.

"Come here darling," said her mother, beckoning to her.

"We need to ask you something," another voice said, and Cassiopeia realised for the first time that her father was in the room as well. She took a few hesitant steps forwards until she was in front of the large arm chair her mother was sitting in. Her father flicked his wand and the door swung shut with a bang behind her. Cassiopeia couldn't help herself, she gulped, fear showing in her eyes. What on earth could her parents want so badly they both needed to be in the room?

"First of all, we wanted to say congratulations on being sorted into Slytherin," began her mother. "Finally, one of our children is living up to the Malfoy name and not associating with those horrible Potters and blood-traitors. And especially not filthy mudbloods."

Cassiopeia shook her head, but her heart tore when she thought of what Esther and Michael would say if they were here. She couldn't tell her parents that her two closest friends were muggle-borns. To them, that was even worse than blood-traitors. They would kill her.

_I'm sorry guys,_ she thought, _but I just don't want to die yet_.

"This isn't what you called me in here for though, is it?" she asked sceptically, eyeing her parents. "You wrote me a letter at the beginning of term telling me the same thing. What do you really want to talk to me about?"

"My, you are sharp, aren't you?" said her father, looking at her. "Hogwarts is doing you good. Yes, that is not the reason we called you in here. We actually wanted to ask you a favour of sorts."

"Yes," said Cassiopeia slowly. "And what exactly would that favour be?"

"We need your help getting the Dark Lord to return."

"No."

SMACK!

Cassiopeia stumbled backwards as her father's hand struck across her cheek.

"Draco!" her mother exclaimed. "Don't hit her yet. We haven't told her the details yet. She might still agree."

Cassiopeia glared at her father, and held her hand up to her cheek. She could feel the heat radiating off it where her father's hand had made contact.

"I won't help you," said Cassiopeia. "Not ever. It's a good thing he's gone. The wizarding world is better off without him. Kingsley Shacklebolt is a great Minister. Bringing Voldemort back is just going to plunge the whole world back into war again."

"You dare speak his name!" exclaimed her father. "He is much greater than you will ever hope to be! You have no worth! You are nothing! You don't have the power to say it."

"I'll say what I like," retorted Cassiopeia.

Before she or her mother could do anything, he lunged at her and pinned her to the opposite wall by her wrists, pushing them against the hard plaster. She whimpered and squirmed under her father's grip, sure that her bones would snap at any second.

"Shut. Up." snarled her father. "We raised you better than this. I thought you were better than your brother but obviously some rules need a little reinforcement." He released her wrists and turned to her mother.

"Shut her in her room for the rest of the day. No food or water until lunch time tomorrow. We'll try again then and see if we can talk some sense into her then."

Her mother looked terrified but nodded her head. "Come, Cassiopeia," she said, standing up from her chair and walking over to the terrified girl. She took her gently by the hand and led her up to her room. Before she shut the door she slipped her a box. "Open it later," she hissed, before pulling the door shut with a bang.

Cassiopeia looked down at the box and tossed it onto her bed, she didn't have time to look at it now anyway. She needed to finish her essay.

She walked over to her desk to find two owls sitting patiently on her open windowsill, each holding a letter.

"Hello," she said. "How long have you two been there?" She gently took the letters from their beaks and was surprised when neither of them flew away.

The first letter was addressed to her in a familiar untidy scrawl. Michael. She smiled and opened the envelope, pulling out the letter.

_Cassie,_

_ Hope you're having a good holiday so far. We've had so much fun being home with Nan. She can hardly believe everything we've told her._

_ Anyway, one of the things we told her about was you, and she wants to meet you, since you're our first magical friend._

_ She says if you want, you can come over on Christmas Eve and then stay until we go back to school. I hope your parents say yes. I can't wait to show you our town._

_ Please send a reply with the owl. Her name's Alina. Nan got her for us when we went to Diagon Alley yesterday._

_ Your friends,_

_ Esther and Michael._

Cassiopeia looked sadly at the letter. It was highly unlikely that her father would let her go after what had just happened. But if she lied, and said they were pureblooded maybe he would let her go.

The second letter was written in an unfamiliar handwriting and she opened it cautiously.

_Cassiopeia,_

_ How is our favourite relative? Hopefully you're well._

_ You may wonder why we're writing to you but we were going to set up a little "Pureblooded Potential Death Eaters" group at school, you know, for when the Dark Lord comes back. He's going to need some new followers, most of them are locked up in Azkaban or are dead._

_ Anyway, we were wondering if you wanted to help us. Of course you'd be part of the group as well. And then you'd have more of us on your side next time those stupid Gryffindors try and attack you._

_ Think it over and let us know._

_ Lucretia and Lysandra._

_I have a really messed up family,_ thought Cassiopeia as she set the second letter down on her desk.

She quickly scribbled a reply to Esther and Michael saying she didn't know if she'd be able to come because of problems at home and then faced the difficult task of replying to Lucretia and Lysandra.

On the plus side, she'd probably be able to get even with the Gryffindors and not have to suffer any consequences, but on the other side, she might end up forced to join Voldemort if he ever did rise again.

She hated decision making.


End file.
